Special Days

Caroline and I both had birthdays recently. The Saturday night before the huge ice storm, Becky and Travis surprised me by taking us to Fast Lanes! I truly thought it was going to be just us four bowling, but when we got to our lanes, there were a ton of my friends there. We ate pizza, cake and bowled for hours! It really touched me that they went to so much trouble to make sure I had some fun on my big 3-0 birthday. We really had a blast. At some point the lights went off and "cosmic" bowling began...here's a short video of how Caroline, Lakyn and Sara reacted. (Thanks to "Ro-Ro"-Leigh-for helping Caroline bowl all night!)



More importantly, on February 2nd our little sweet pea turned TWO! Can you believe it? With all of the ice storm commotion, we ended up spending her "real" birthday (Groundhog's Day) at Mimi and Papa's house. Papa brought home tons of balloons (that is all Caroline has asked for her birthday.) Mimi and I took Caroline earlier in the day to Chuck E Cheese's. It was her first ever visit and she was a little hesitant at first. She did not care for the dancing/singing characters on stage, but she warmed up quickly to the "rides" and games. Here she is on the slide.


Here she is under the slide on the "bus." This made me shudder a little to think of her going off to school in a few years! (I've got enough to worry about right now, I'll worry about that when the time comes!)We threw Caroline a party here at our house this past Saturday night. It was great to be surrounded by family and friends again (with electricity!) It was "Tinkerbell" themed and Caroline squealed when she saw the decorations. We have had to sing the "Happy Birthday" song, oh, about 25 times this weekend. She sings along and it's the cutest thing ever.
One of the many things that I am going to miss about Thomas is his talent for photography (I know a lot of you will miss that!) He was such a natural at any hobby he decided to take up and photography was one of our favorites. He tried to teach me a few things, but I am not a natural like he was. It was such a blessing to have Thomas' brother, Skip, take pictures for me at Caroline's party. Skip was really the inspiration behind Thomas getting into photography in the first place. Here's a few from Caroline's special day. (The bottom picture is of blocks "Bapa" or Thomas' dad made for Caroline with their initials. Thomas and "Bapa" made a whole set of blocks with their initials on them and gave them to Caroline on her first birthday last year.) We had an awesome day at Thomas' school, Har-Ber High, on Friday. I hope most of you were able to see some news coverage of it. Thomas' oldest brother gave a lecture/presentation to each of Thomas' classes that covered biology topics and life lessons. It gave his students a well-rounded view of Thomas and what he stood for and how he lived life to the fullest. The students and faculty have been amazing. The stories, gifts and cards I've received from them has shown me just how much they care for him and the impact he made on their lives.
On Friday, Aunt Jen-Thomas' older sister-gave Thomas' mom, Caroline and I lockets each with special pictures laser-etched in color. Caroline does not want to take it off! At church, Sunday, she kept showing everyone her locket. I had to show her how to hold it without covering the pictures up so people could see it! She also opens mine everytime she sees it and says, "Momma, Dadda, Nine-nuh (She can't say "Caroline" well yet) over and over. Luckily, Jen tells me the lockets are water (or tear)-proof.

Prayer Requests:

• Doctor's appointment tomorrow for baby #2 **Update: Appointment went great! Everyone at HerHealth has been so wonderful to me and I consider them to be a blessing to me. I have some ultrasound pictures that I will post as soon as I scan them in! Her/His little feet are crossed at the ankle in one of the pictures. So cute!*
  

• The paperwork from insurance companies will end quickly. (I never knew how much paperwork is involved-pray for my patience in filling out all that's required of me. It is really starting to get me down.) **Update: What a fast answered prayer! Two of my paperwork "hang-ups" were miraculously cleared up today. Just a few more to go. Thanks so much for the prayers. God cares about these "little" things, too!**
  

• Everyone's pregnancies to go smoothly (There are five of us in our bible study who are pregnant-what blessings!)